Before launching a new model on to the market, or whenever improvements or changes are made to the load-bearing components of existing models, all car manufacturers conduct "live" impact tests to determine the mechanical response of vehicle body and internal passenger compartment components to dynamic design stress. At present, these tests involve a good deal of expense in that simply determining the response of one component (e.g. the engine supporting frame, front cross member, bumper, seat guide, safety belt fasteners, etc.) involves the total destruction of vehicles identical to those for marketing. For, even though the deformation performance of the overall vehicle structure may be determined easily and cheaply by means of full-vehicle impact tests conducted for other purposes (e.g. passenger safety tests using a manikin), this is not sufficient for extrapolating the performance of individual components.